Dynamic behaviour of YAG transparent ceramic under ramp wave and shock compression loading up to 20 GPa

YAG transparent ceramic has great potential in the applications to transparent armour protection modules. To study the dynamic behaviour and obtain the parameters for the equation of state of YAG under the load of longitudinal stress ranging from 0 to 20 GPa, ramp wave and shock compression experiments were conducted based on the electromagnetic loading test platform. The Hugoniot data, isentropic data, dynamic strength, and elastic limit of YAG were obtained. The results showed that the relationship between the longitudinal wave speed and the particle velocity of YAG was linear when the longitudinal stress was lower than the elastic limit. The quasi-isentropic compression and shock Hugoniot compression curves were coincident when the stress in YAG was below 10 GPa; however, a separation of the two curves occurred when the stress in YAG ranged from 10 GPa to the elastic limit. Moreover, the effect of strain rate on the fracture stress of YAG under a moderate strain rate of 10\(^{\textrm{5}}\)–10\(^{\textrm{6}}\) \(\hbox {s}^{\mathrm {-1}}\) was more evident than in other strain rate ranges. The amplitude of the precursor wave decayed with increasing sample thickness.